Technology and Cosmology
Since the stories were written before the invention of solid state electronic components, all the electronic technology in this 21st century setting is based on vacuum tubes. At the series' opening there is one major addition to mid-20th century technology called the "driver tube". This is a specialized vacuum tube which (through mechanisms not explained) very efficiently converts the matter of its anode to massive amounts of thrust upon excitation by a low-power source. Powered by batteries, the driver tube enables the multi-G constant-boost spaceships seen throughout the series.
At the series opening both Mars and Venus have been colonized. Both are described as having shirt-sleeve environments in at least some regions.
Read more about this topic: Venus Equilateral
Famous quotes containing the word technology:
“Technology is not an image of the world but a way of operating on reality. The nihilism of technology lies not only in the fact that it is the most perfect expression of the will to power ... but also in the fact that it lacks meaning.”
—Octavio Paz (b. 1914)